1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to explosive and propellant compositions based on mixtures of organic acids or derivatives and nitrate-containing oxidizers.
2. State of the Art
It has been known to practitioners in the art of explosives and munitions that compositions having explosive or propellant properties can be prepared from organic or inorganic nitrates. For instance, conventional gunpowder also referred to as black powder, is typically composed of sulfur, potassium nitrate and charcoal. Other combustible compositions which are utilizable as ammunition, explosives or propellants also contain nitrates as the oxidizer portion of the composite blend. Usually, ammonium nitrate or alkali metal nitrates are employed as preferred oxidizers in many such applications.
A significant advance in this art is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,676 (Kurtz). The patent describes the discovery that an aqueous slurry of an organic acid, such as ascorbic or erythorbic acid, and an inorganic nitrate, such as potassium nitrate, when heated to drive off the water, produces a composite material which is useful as an explosive and propellant. The material is comparable in performance to black powder ballistically, but is safer to handle and burns cleaner, giving off no sulfurous fumes and leaving no corrosive residue.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,376 (Kurtz) describes an improvement in such a composition, in which the mixture is heated at certain elevated temperatures during processing to produce a clearly identifiable reaction which results in a chemical and/or physical change in the organic acid portion, e.g., the ascorbic or erythorbic acid.
European Patent Publication No. 268996 describes explosive materials obtained by mixing a degradation product of ascorbic acid or erythorbic acid with a nitrate-containing oxidation agent.